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Pakistan U13 village children travel to England tTo play Rugby

Written by Pakistan Rugby Union
Sunday, 05 October 2008
Pakistan Rugby Union 5 October 2008 Desert Camels off to play Rugby in England Bahawalnagar team set to play in Tullow Oil Touraid U13 Cup 2008 LAHORE, 5 October 2008: Over the Eid weekend a Camel caravan assembles in the heart of the deserts of Southern Punjab. This week the caravan weaves its way to the Lahore International Airport, boards a plane and heads off for merry old England to play rugby! Sound like a dream inspired by Iqbal's Bang-e-dara gone wild? The truth actually gets dreamier. The caravan is composed mainly of nine village boys from Fort Abbass, Bahawalnagar, who have hardly ventured outside the precincts of their district but are now heading off to England to participate in the 2008 Tullow Oil Touraid U13 Cup. Aside from the invaluable cultural exposure the tour promises the boys, in the tournament they will get to play with teams from Tanzania, Namibia, Madagascar, South Africa, Uganda, Trinidad and Tobago, Ghana, India and Côte d'Ivoire (the Ivory Coast). This dream is coming to life under the auspices of the Pakistan Rugby Union (PRU), the efforts of the Punjab Rugby Association (PRA), logistic and financial support of British charity Touraid, and monetary contribution from KPMG England. The touring party will be accompanied by Sulman Waine, member and former captain of the Pakistan national rugby team, and Muzammil Khan Waziri, who established rugby in the desert district three years ago. Waziri, a hulk of lad with a background in sports education, chanced upon the Lahore Rugby Football Club at the Gaddaffi football stadium five years ago. He fell in love with the sport and played with the club side for a few years. When he moved back to his home district, the PRA drafted him as a development officer in the Punjab District Rugby Development Programme. In a short span of time Waziri has introduced the sport in the villages and government schools and colleges in Bahawalnagar, and the previously unthinkable is happening: rugby is taking off in the Pakistani desert! The Desert Camels Rugby Club now boasts over 200 boys and men playing at the U14, U19 and men's level. The club has already met with success, particularly at the U14 and U19 level. In 2008, the Desert Camels won the 3rd Annual Punjab Coca Cola Interschool Championship. A member of the club was also declared Player of the Tournament, and took away a cash prize of Rs 5,000 donated by Rizwan Khan, Regional Head of Coca Cola International. Players from the club have also represented Southern Punjab in All-Pakistan National Rugby Championships, and at the rate at which they are progressing it won't be long before some go on to represent the national side. Commenting on the "dream tour," PRU President Fawzi Khawaja said: "We are ecstatic about this tour. It will give rugby development a tremendous boost where it's already started to flourish. This is great incentive to inspire children and to help them understand that through rugby anything is possible-self development, projection, exposure, education." He appreciated the efforts of Servis Industries, which has supported the development of the game since its inception in the country, and Coca Cola, which has helped spread the game at the school level. Both organizations are pitching in this time as well, providing uniforms and rugby boots to the touring team. "We are also especially grateful to the British High Commission for appreciating all this and issuing visas," Khawaja added, recalling also that the very first All Pakistan Rugby Sevens tournament was held at the British High Commission grounds in Islamabad back in 1991. and most of all fawzi wanted to thank all the staff at tour aid who put in all this effort to bring about this change it is small gestures like this that make will make or a better undserstanding and bring about change In terms of the Desert Camels team, the PRU president said former Hong Kong national coach Rambo Leung had helped with the initial selection a few months ago. "Rambo felt there was definitely talent and potential here, but the boys in our country badly needed exposure and match-play to develop." Khawaja stressed, however, that the cultural bridging and exposure the tour would provide to underprivileged kids was much more important than the sport itself. "The boys will be immersed in the culture, staying with British families at the host Hawthorns School in Surrey. They will get to visit the famous London Eye and other tourist spots, and will get to mix with boys from all over the world. I am sure it will be a life-changing experience for all of them." At the press confrence Coca cola chairman MR rizwan khan also annoused a year monthly scholoship/stipend for each of the students to play rugby and to promote the game on his return from the tour What is Touraid? Touraid is a children's charity that establishes sustainable relationships between schools and clubs in the UK with similar organisations around the globe that support disadvantaged children. touraid sees rugby as the catalyst for these partnerships with the resulting educational, cultural and social benefits to the visiting teams and host children being immeasurable. Touraid believes that an essential element of any long-lasting relationship is time spent together engaged in activities, which give rise to shared experiences. Time spent by tourists with host families provides unique opportunities for friendships to be built and for personal commitment to be developed towards sustaining the relationship. It is hoped that tourists will have the opportunity to leave behind (if only temporarily) the disadvantages of their home or other normal daily circumstances and that they will experience travel, a different culture, and a sense of a wider world which is interested in them and which has something to offer them. Hosting children will experience new friendships and many children at the hosting school will obtain an insight into the lives and circumstances of others who are less fortunate than themselves and are culturally different. From the Touraid website. For more information, please visit: http://www.touraid.co.uk/ Bookmark with: Delicious Digg reddit Facebook StumbleUpon What are these?

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